Month: July 2016

Editor’s note: This article appeared originally in The Advocate, the newsletter of the NCBA’s Young Lawyers Division.

When The Advocate asked me to write an article about helpful tips for having an effective mediation, I took some time to reflect on how my personal preparation and tactics for mediation have changed over the last 20-some years. Civil litigation/mediation slowly but surely morphed from a passive “Well, let’s show up and see if we can settle at mediation” attitude, to an active “What do we need to do prior to mediation to secure a favorable settlement?”

Fundamentally, your client cares little about litigation drama. Your client cares about getting a good result that is cost effective and timely. Mediation can deliver all of that in spades. But, like almost anything in life, getting there takes some work and prior planning. Several hours of careful thought, strategy and planning about 60 days prior to a mediation will greatly increase the chances of having a successful mediation.

Richard Gabriel, a member of the NCBA’s International Law & Practice Section and frequent participant in the attorney exchange program, reflects on the 2010 excursion to Turkey in light of the recent terrorist attack at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

The world seems different at night, in the absence of the brightness of the daytime. So it was, late at night, not resting, up to grab a book and turn on the TV, sound muted out of respect for those asleep. Then the vision on the tube, eerily familiar, not really sure, and the crawler at the bottom of the screen announces yet again, a bombing at an airport.

The panic on the screen, all too familiar scenes of turmoil, fear, hurriedly hit the sound button, and then the realization: I have been there before, the airport at Istanbul, Turkey.

Thoughts come in a flood: Alp, were you there at the time of the explosion, meeting another group of visitors and preparing to show them your country?